COMPARISON · FOR AI DEVELOPERS
Tako vs. Tavily
Tavily is a web search API for AI agents, with tools to extract, crawl, and map sites. Tako searches the web too, and in the same call returns licensed and official data, such as company financials, economic indicators, markets, and sports, as cited figures with interactive charts. Here's how the two compare when your agent needs the numbers, not only the pages.
Is Tako a good Tavily alternative?
It depends on what your agent reads. If it mostly works with web pages, such as searching news, extracting articles, or crawling and mapping a site, Tavily's extract, crawl, and map tools are built for that. If it needs figures it can quote and compute with, such as revenue, GDP, stock prices, or sports stats, with a source and a chart on each, plus cited web results in the same call, Tako is the better fit. Both cost about the same per search.
Search, Answer, Contents, and Agent APIs that return cited web results alongside statistics, time series, and charts from licensed and official sources, priced per request with a self-serve API key and an MCP server.
Search, Extract, Crawl, Map, and Research APIs that return clean, LLM-ready web content, priced in credits, with a free monthly allowance and an MCP server.
THE SCORECARD
✓ = supported · — = not offered · notes clarify scope. Tavily facts are from its pricing page and API documentation, November 2026.
DATA
Web pages vs. web pages plus data
One call searches the web and Tako's knowledge graph of licensed and official data. A question like "Nvidia revenue by quarter" returns the figures, their source, and a chart, alongside cited web results.
Returns ranked web results with a title, URL, content snippet, and relevance score, and can add an LLM-generated answer, raw page content, and images. It also offers news and finance topic options.
PRICING
What a search costs
Sign up, get an API key with free credits, and pay from $7 per 1,000 searches after that, depending on the search level. The MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor when you sign in with a Tako account.
A basic search costs 1 credit and an advanced search costs 2, at $0.008 a credit on pay-as-you-go. The free plan includes 1,000 credits a month, and the $30 Project plan includes 4,000.
BEYOND SEARCH
Reading pages vs. working with data
The Contents API returns a web page's full text, or the rows behind a knowledge card as JSON or CSV where the source's license allows export. The Agent API runs asynchronous research and enrichment tasks over data and the web.
Extract pulls clean content from URLs, Crawl reads many pages across a site, Map lists a site's structure, and Research writes a cited report from multiple sources.
WHEN TO USE EACH
Choose Tako when your agent needs current figures it can quote, compute, and chart, such as company financials, economic indicators, market prices, or sports stats, and wants them with cited web results from one call.
Choose Tavily when your agent mainly reads the open web: searching news, extracting full articles, or crawling and mapping a site, and you want a free monthly allowance to start.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Tako a Tavily alternative?
Yes, when your agent needs figures as well as web pages. Tako returns cited web results plus licensed and official data, such as company financials, economic indicators, markets, and sports, with a chart and source on each figure. For crawling and mapping whole sites, Tavily has dedicated tools.
How much does Tako cost compared with Tavily?
About the same per search. Tako's Search API costs $7 per 1,000 requests at the Instant and Fast levels, and a new account starts with free credits. Tavily's basic search costs 1 credit at $0.008 a credit on pay-as-you-go, or $8 per 1,000 searches, and its free plan includes 1,000 credits a month.
Does Tavily return structured data like financials or GDP?
Tavily returns web pages: titles, URLs, content snippets, and optionally an LLM-generated answer. If the figure is on a page, your agent reads it from the text. Tako returns the figure itself with its source and a chart. For open sources, such as the World Bank, the Contents API also returns the full series as JSON or CSV; licensed data, such as S&P Global's, stays in cards and cited answers.
Do both have an MCP server?
Yes. Tako's MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP-enabled agent when you sign in with a Tako account. Tavily's MCP server connects Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other MCP clients.
Can I use both together?
Yes. Both ship MCP servers, so an agent can call Tako for figures and cited web results and Tavily for crawling or mapping a site in the same conversation.
Give your agent the numbers.
Cited web results, statistics, and charts in one call, priced per request.